


Hazel, Bordering on Gold

by Etwas_Schlau



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Birthday Sex, Changing Tenses, Developing Relationship, Drunken Confessions, Drunkenness, F/F, Flashbacks, Gift Fic, Light Angst, Multi, One Shot, POV Third Person Limited, Phone Calls & Telephones, Polyamory, Possessive Behavior, Reconciliation, Romance, Sexual Tension, Suggestive Themes, Texting, Threesome - F/F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 19:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11675556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etwas_Schlau/pseuds/Etwas_Schlau
Summary: Peridot meets Garnet by chance in the supermarket, but she also meets her seven-foot tall body builder girlfriend.





	Hazel, Bordering on Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Uchuu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uchuu/gifts).



> **Note:** I do not own Steven Universe. All rights to the cartoon and its characters belong to Rebecca Sugar.
> 
> a birthday gift for one of my favourite jaspidot writers. The names Zarah and Zayda for the Zircons are courtesy of [IsominiacArrest](http://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest). enjoy!

_Thwap thwap thwap_

Bare feet thud against wood flooring as small hands tug on bleach blonde locks. Acid green eyes glare at the outdated smartphone laying idle on the table and Peridot groans for the umpteenth time. This is not how things were supposed to go.

Images of a dark-skinned, sunglass-clad, plump-lipped goddess of a woman flash through her mind, a common occurrence by now. But this time the risqué thoughts are accompanied by fantasies of wild platinum hair and toothy, predatory grins. Tan and ivory vitiligo-streaked biceps flex in her mind’s eye, showing off rippling, sinewy muscle beneath smooth flesh. Hazel pools bordering on the edge of gold, unfailingly smug and confident, burn into the blackness beneath her eyelids.

Peridot helplessly rubs at her scrunched eyes, trying, yet miserably failing, to will away the silent movie playing in her head. Her heart stutters in her chest at the thought of her own petite frame sandwiched between two bodies. The toned planes and soft curves of a regal queen and the pure, unbridled power of an Amazonian warrior; a shiver runs down the blonde’s spine, (among other places.)

_Fuck._

The short woman takes a moment to ponder how she got herself into this predicament. It had started in a Walmart, of all places, and she almost wishes she hadn’t agreed to accompany her friend on her hunt for a last-minute anniversary gift.

Almost.

* * *

 

Peridot jabs a pointy elbow into her lanky friend’s side, shooting her an admonishing look.

“How could you not have bought something before now!?”

“She said she didn’t want me to make a fuss about it!” Zarah defends, shrinking away from the tiny woman’s assault.

“Come _on_ , Z! You of all people should know that when a girl says she doesn’t want a fuss she’s just trying to seem modest.”

“I know, I know! Just help me find something good, alright?”

Peridot puffs her chest out as they walk into the flower section of the store. “You’re lucky you have a loyal friend such as myself to save you from Zayda’s wrath,” she quips with a smirk.

The blue-haired woman rolls her eyes but smiles despite herself, plucking a bouquet of flowers from a display and twirling it between her fingers. The two girls move onto the gift aisle, discussing which card to buy and what kind of jewelry Zayda would appreciate.

Wandering through the store, an endcap displaying the first installment in a new Camp Pining Hearts graphic novel series catches Peridot’s attention. She pauses, stars in her eyes, as Zarah continues walking. The short girl grabs the nearest copy and reads the synopsis on the back of the book before flipping through the first few pages, captivated.

She shorts out a derisive noise after a few moments. “This completely disregards the pre-established canon! Percy is a member of the yellow team in the show! To put him on the blue team completely erases the conflict between-” Peridot trails of as she realizes that her friend is no longer with her. Scanning the nearby aisles, she sighs when there is no sign of the other girl.

After a few minutes of searching, anxiety is bubbling in her chest and she has to force herself to breathe steadily. She absently fidgets with the hem of her shirt, whimpering quietly to herself. Gnawing on her bottom lip, she turns a corner and finally catches sight of the back of a figure dressed in dark blue jeans and a brown leather jacket. _Zarah!_ Relieved and irritated, she strides to the person and yanks on their sleeve.

“Zarah! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” she chides angrily to hide the foolishness she feels for overreacting.

Peridot doesn’t meet the other woman’s eyes at first, and when she does only one thought echoes through her mind.

_That’s definitely not Zarah._

The stranger standing before her is gorgeous, busty with an hourglass figure and radiant chocolate skin. Her hair is styled into a vaguely square afro and expensive reflective sunglasses are perched atop her round nose.

“I think you have the wrong person,” the woman states simply, adjusting her glasses.

 _Oh my stars, she has an accent…!_ Peridot stutters incoherently for a moment, face heating up as she struggles to form a sentence in the face of the stunning stranger. She deftly notices the woman’s head tilting down briefly before rising back up and her breath catches in her chest. _Did she just check me out or am I going insane?_

“I’m Garnet,” she introduces abruptly, extending a hand to shake. Peridot is flabbergasted and numbly slides her small fingers into Garnet’s strong grip.

“Uh, P-Peridot,” she stammers, blushing even deeper in embarrassment.

The full, expressionless lips before her slowly morph into a knowing smile and soft digits are fishing in coat pockets, withdrawing a pen and a restaurant napkin. The enigmatic woman jots a series of numbers on the thin material and slips it into Peridot’s jacket lapel with more brazen grace than the short girl has in her entire body.

Suddenly a woman almost a head taller than Garnet is stomping over, hooking an arm around her waist.

“There you are. I found the coffee,” she announces, planting a kiss on the shorter woman’s cheek. Turning her attention toward Peridot, she goes on. “Who’s this?”

The blonde furrows her brows in confusion. She knew ‘gals pals’ enough to tell that was more than a friendly embrace. Was this woman trying to cheat on her girlfriend with her?

“This is Peridot. I gave her my number.”

 _Nope_. The girl shrinks into herself under the athletic stranger’s assessing gaze.

“Heh, you’re a short lil’ drink of water, aren’t ya?” she comments, earning a flush across Peridot’s cheeks and neck.

She laughs uproariously before jutting a powerful hand in Peridot’s face. “Name’s Jasper. You better be careful, Garnet could chew up and spit out a runt like you before breakfast,” she taunts as she heartily shakes hands with the nonplussed girl, using an iron-tight, bone-breaking grip.

“You should probably find your friend now.” Without warning Garnet is turning on her heel, merging into the rushing crowd of shoppers with Jasper at her heels. Peridot stares into space and spends a dazed second wondering if that had really just happened or if her brain was playing tricks on her. The girl groans and rests her face in her hands, muttering quietly so no one else in the store can hear.

“I’m too gay for this.”

* * *

 

Peridot had quickly found that she didn’t care much for Jasper.

The woman seemed insistent on driving a red-hot railroad spike between her and Garnet. Every meeting, every date, every night in, every time. Whether it was shoving her way between them on the couch (and draping her massive arms around both girls’ shoulders like anacondas) or incessant, inappropriate texts during dinners out, Peridot couldn’t see Garnet without Jasper in the background.

The woman was a walking contradiction. She was blunt and honest to a fault and she didn’t seem to mind the idea of sharing her girlfriend. She often made inappropriate comments about her and Garnet’s open relationship, (which also annoyed and flustered Peridot.) Hell, she herself had admitted she sometimes entertained a nerdy girl called Pearl when Garnet was unavailable. Despite this, however, she appeared determined to keep Peridot at least arm’s length from the other woman.

It wasn’t as if Jasper wasn’t attractive. On the contrary, she was stunning, absolutely breathtaking. One time Peridot had walked in on her doing bench presses in the home gym with Garnet spotting and she’d been red in the face for the entire rest of the afternoon. But there was a difference between the way Garnet knew Jasper and the way Peridot did.

It didn’t take much time around Jasper to know she was a very private person. The personality she displayed was built around jokes and sarcasm and purposefully outrageous candidness. What were her dreams? What did she think about pineapple on pizza? What was her favourite colour? Peridot didn’t know. She could talk for hours without really saying anything and it was emphatically frustrating. Any appeal or allure she might have to her was counterbalanced by her reserved, withdrawn manner.

But all of that had changed one night when Peridot received an unsteady knock on her apartment door at three in the morning.

* * *

“Peridot! I know you’re in there!” comes a slurred, obnoxious yell from outside. The short blonde is rubbing the sleep from her tired eyes as she pads to the living room, dressed in alien-print pajamas from head to toe but too exhausted to care. Undoing the deadbolt and throwing open the door, Peridot’s gaze falls upon a very drunk and very wobbly Jasper.

“What are you doing here?” Peridot growls out unforgivingly, crossing her arms. “It’s past visiting hours.”

“Me and Garnet… We- we had a fight,” the intoxicated woman mutters, sounding almost remorseful. Peridot’s eyebrows rise towards her hairline. Now _that’s_ an emotion Jasper doesn’t display often.

“And?” she demands, already having an idea of what Jasper wants.

“I need to crash on- on your, uh, couch,” she stutters drunkenly, not meeting Peridot’s eyes. “I-if that’s, if that’s alright.”

Now the girl is thoroughly astonished. This was not like Jasper whatsoever. She nods after a beat of silence. “Yeah, uh, come in.” She steps back, motioning for the woman to take a seat in the kitchen. Boot-clad feet scuff on wood flooring and leave dirty footprints on the kitchen linoleum as Peridot shuts the door. She resolves to deal with it later; right now she has a completely plastered, seven foot tall, guilty-looking brick of a woman to attend to.

She stands on her tiptoes to retrieve a glass from her cupboard, filling it with tap water and sliding it across the counter to Jasper, who shoots Peridot a look.

“You’ll thank me later, you big oaf,” she huffs, sitting down across from the other woman.

The room is deathly silent as Jasper drinks, downing the whole glass in a few swallows. She slams the cup down on the table and Peridot cringes at the noise. She stares expectantly at the woman and when she doesn’t speak, she starts for her.

“So what happened?” she asks in the gentlest voice she can manage.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Her eye twitches. She hadn’t gotten out of bed at three in the morning for this. “Come on, I won’t judge you,” she prompts.

Silence.

“Jasper.”

Large fingers clench around the empty glass, knuckles white.

“ _Jasper_.”

“I said, I don’t want to _talk about it_!” Jasper bellows, jumping up from her chair and glaring at the girl with daggers in her gaze.

Peridot snaps, standing as well. “Have you ever thought maybe, just maybe, _this_ is your problem? You keep everything bottled away and never actually talk about things!”

“That’s not my fault!” Jasper retorts, posture tightening.

The short girl throws her hands in the air. “Oh, so it’s my fault? Because I’ve never done anything to you and yet you still don’t trust me enough to tell me anything!”

The tan woman scoffs, rolling her eyes. “We talk all the time!”

“No, we don’t! You make innuendos and tell inappropriate jokes and complain about your favourite hockey team having a bad season, but you never genuinely have real conversations with me! I want to get to know you better but how am I supposed to do that when I don’t even know your favourite colour!?”

“I-” Jasper falters, eyes flashing with something cold and dark. She squints tightly, clawing at her face. “I can’t talk about that! It’s not my fault!”

“Whose fault is it, then!?”

“I don’t know,” she replies, all fire gone from her voice. She sounds abject and… _afraid_ , Peridot realizes suddenly. Jasper breathes out a humourless laugh. “Blame my parents, that’s what I’ve done for the past twenty-five years.”

“Jasper, what are you talking about?” Peridot inquires softly, pity roiling in her stomach.

“I can’t- I can’t do it, Peridot,” she mutters, blowing out a long breath. “It’s scary, okay? It’s fucking terrifying. I can’t open up to people. Whenever I do, I end up getting hurt. It’s-” Jasper pauses, swiping at what Peridot dares to believe are tears. “It’s different with Garnet because I’ve known her for years, but you…”

The blonde takes a hesitant step toward the other woman. “What _about_ me?”

She makes a strangled noise as if should be obvious. “It’s bad enough talking about feelings and shit with regular people who _aren’t_ cute and dorky and super smart! You’re a genius, you know all about computers and stars and Isaac Newton and nerd stuff.”

Peridot quirks an eyebrow, trying not to be insensitive. “So?”

“So, to you I probably look like a gorilla who knows how to use a bench press!” she yells, staring at the floor.

“Jasper,” the blonde whispers, gently resting a hand on her forearm. “Do you think I’ll think you’re stupid?”

Jasper sighs and lifts her ashamed eyes to Peridot’s. “I know you want to have, like, deep conversations about life and philosophy and stuff, but I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I don’t want to lose you.”

A long minute passes and neither girl speaks. Steeling her confidence, Peridot grabs onto Jasper’s hand. “I think you’re wrong.”

“What?”

“You underestimate yourself, Jasper. I know you’re intelligent, you don’t have to know how to write in binary code to be smart,” she chokes out, hoping what she’s trying to say comes across to the drunk woman.

A soft look graces her face. “Thanks, Peri.”

“And frankly, I’m offended you’d think that of me,” Peridot adds, a good-humoured smirk playing about her lips.

Jasper’s dilated eyes widen. “What?”

“As if I’d stop wanting to hang out with you because you’re not a psychology major PhD,” she quips, grinning.

The taller woman reciprocates the smile and before Peridot can react, she’s leaning down and capturing her lips in a kiss, slow and searing like a cigarette burn. The blonde leans into the embrace, heart pounding as she hooks her arms around a muscular neck. Her veins are burning with electricity and she opens her mouth for Jasper’s prodding, fervent tongue.

Hands reach down and grasp Peridot’s thighs, lifting the small girl into toned arms with ease. She can feel Jasper’s breasts pressing against hers and she moans into her mouth, fingers fisting in unkempt platinum hair.

After a moment, they part and Peridot pants as she presses her forehead to Jasper’s. The intense amber eyes before her bore into her soul and she has to close hers to avoid those deep, blown pupils. The apartment descends back into silence and awkwardness gradually settles in the air.

“It’s orange,” Jasper murmurs to break the quiet.

Peridot leans back to look puzzledly at the other woman.

“My favourite colour,” she explains, almost sheepish.

The blonde suddenly laughs at the absurdity of everything, tears forming in her eyes as her shoulders shudder uncontrollably. Jasper joins in slowly, rubbing her temple, and she has to set Peridot back on her feet to clutch her gut as she guffaws.

Once their laughter dies down, Peridot yawns loudly. “We should get some sleep,” she says quietly.

“I’ll take the couch,” Jasper offers, nodding in agreement.

“That is, unless you want to sleep in the bed,” the short girl adds slyly, “with me.”

The brawny woman is nonplussed and once more she bobs her head dumbly, following Peridot to her bedroom. In the queen size bed she stays far to her side, but the short girl has other ideas, rolling over to snuggle against her chest.

They fall asleep in each other’s arms.

* * *

 

The morning after had been awkward; awaking tangled in each other’s limbs. Jasper had embarrassedly hurried from Peridot’s apartment and things reverted to their previous dynamic, but worse. Their relationship seemed to rewind progress; Jasper no longer teased and joked with Peridot. They avoided each other at all costs and when they crossed each other’s paths the atmosphere instantly became tense and uncomfortable. Garnet noticed but didn’t voice her concerns. They’d have to come around some time.

But they didn’t. A month passed and both parties still laboured as if the night never happened. Which is why Peridot was shocked to receive a text from Jasper the morning before Garnet’s birthday.

 _hey,_ it had read, _what did you get garnet for her birthday?_

Peridot had pondered the message for a while before typing out a response. _You’ll have to look somewhere else if you want to mooch off someone’s present._

_no, it’s not that. I want make her birthday special._

_By mooching off my present?_

_shut up. I have a present.  
sort of. _

_Oh god what did you do?_

_calm down, I just wanna know if you’ll go halfsies w/ me on it_

_How much do you need?_

_no money_

_Quit pissing around, Jasper. What’s the gift?_

_sex_

_Excuse me?_

_ever heard of birthday sex?_

_Wait, are you asking me to have a threeway with you?_

_we’re both garnet’s girlfriend and i want to make it special  
what do you say? _

Peridot hadn’t known how to respond.

* * *

 

She groans, picking up her phone and rereading the text conversation for the fiftieth time. As she eyes the day-old messages, a new one suddenly pops up at the bottom of the screen.

_I’m assuming that’s a no, then. if u change ur mind stop by before 6 and we’ll get it on_

Peridot blushes at the wording of the text, checking the time. _5:45._ In a moment of clarity she knows exactly what she wants and she makes a decision. She changes into the classiest bra and panty set she owns, gets in her car, and drives faster than she’s ever driven.

She knocks on the door to Garnet’s apartment at 5:58 with confidence. Acid green eyes meet hazel pools bordering on gold. Jasper grins. Peridot reciprocates the gesture.

And soon, so does Garnet.

**Author's Note:**

> look at me too chicken to write a sex scene lmao.
> 
> Uchuu, I hope you liked it! I wish you a birthday full of fun and friends ~~(and birthday sex)~~


End file.
